1191 The Trial

[FrauBlucher]

Beaver...bluray...Will add the UHD at a later date

[diamonds]

I think Welles misunderstood Kafka. He did a good job of capturing the claustrophobic spaces of Kafka's novel, but not its depths. There's plenty of striking and evocative imagery, but he never captures the spirit of Kafka's work. This is pro forma Kafka, the Kafka you get when think "wow, isn't this nightmare scary?", and stop there. So this is a chilling nightmare of entrapment and irrationality, but not much else.

The critic Brad Stevens once floated the idea that Welles' The Trial might actually have more in common with Heller's Catch-22, the rights to which Welles unsuccessfully tried to obtain around the time of The Trial's (post-?)production. I wonder if an examination of the two together would yield any insights into Welles' film.

[beamish14]

I think Welles misunderstood Kafka. He did a good job of capturing the claustrophobic spaces of Kafka's novel, but not its depths. There's plenty of striking and evocative imagery, but he never captures the spirit of Kafka's work. This is pro forma Kafka, the Kafka you get when think "wow, isn't this nightmare scary?", and stop there. So this is a chilling nightmare of entrapment and irrationality, but not much else.

The critic Brad Stevens once floated the idea that Welles' The Trial might actually have more in common with Heller's Catch-22, the rights to which Welles unsuccessfully tried to obtain around the time of The Trial's (post-?)production. I wonder if an examination of the two together would yield any insights into Welles' film.

Many years after Catch-22 was filmed, Buck Henry basically said that Welles was being disingenuous when he claimed to have seriously pursued making his own adaptation of it

[HinkyDinkyTruesmith]

I think there's a lack of generosity towards this film in this thread. It's surprising to see people see this film as one-note, shallow, and lacking humor above all things. Seeing this with an audience at MoMA, it was very clear that it was taken with some dose of humor –– I was surprised at how funny I found it (it had been quite some time since last seeing it). It rarely plays like a comedy in the traditional sense, but the rhythm and the edges of the film help supply a comic edge that Perkins's nervyness adds to it. It's also pretty sexy, oddly enough –– in part because of the way the seediness and perversity of the characters seeps through these blanched spaces. Romy Scheider's libido haunts the film. It all, for me, plays less like a conventional Kafka nightmare of "isn't this scary?" than a dream of confused and conflicting feelings all getting boiled together.

Besides, for all the ways the bureaucracy is after him, the bureaucracy is trying to bury him, the nightmare of bureaucracy... K., as Welles said, *is* guilty as hell! And Welles, for all the ways he drops the pretense of being a literary critic, is smart and primal enough an artist to know that being guilty, playing guilty, is not a matter of "guilty of what" but just "yes or no" –– the shame, the chaos, the desperation, trying to get away with it... K. is both wrongly prosecuted and guilty –– the same way that the young man at the end of Touch of Evil is as well.

[andyli]

Would anyone like to comment on the quality of Filming The Trial? Is it offered in any kind of watchable transfer? I might wanna go for the Criterion edition on account of that despite the lack of HDR.

[filmyfan]

The standard BR release seems difficult to get anywhere via the usual channels in the UK - or if available its very expensive.

Anyone know why?

[FrauBlucher]

I listened to the McBride commentary. He adds these little anecdotes that make his tracks really interesting instead of blabbing on with redundancies. Much enjoyed it. I loved the anecdote about Jean Renoir and Welles' belief that Renoir didn't care for his work, which I guess was not true. McBride also seems to have some good knowledge on Kafka.

I like the other supps as well. The interview with the DP, Edmond Richard added good insight.

[hearthesilence]

I listened to the McBride commentary. He adds these little anecdotes that make his tracks really interesting instead of blabbing on with redundancies. Much enjoyed it. I loved the anecdote about Jean Renoir and Welles' belief that Renoir didn't care for his work, which I guess was not true. McBride also seems to have some good knowledge on Kafka.

I like the other supps as well. The interview with the DP, Edmond Richard added good insight.

It's fortunate McBride was around at the right time, when most of the great Hollywood auteurs and even most of the great Hollywood stars were still alive and he was in a position to talk to them at great length. A lot of his best info, especially when it debunks common misconceptions, seems to be firsthand.